Tyre

Tyre, or Sur (pop. 23,000), town in southwest Lebanon, situated on the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. A thriving seaport under the Phoenicians, Tyre was ruled by Egypt before 1000 B.C. From 1100 to 573 B.C. it enjoyed its most prosperous period, which included the founding of Carthage (9th century), and was a major cultural, intellectual, and commercial center, famous for its purple dye and high-quality ceramics. In 332 B.C. Alexander the Great conquered Tyre and built a causeway that connected what was then the island of Tyre to the mainland, creating apeninsula, site of the present-day city of Tyre. The city later fell under the control of the Roman and Byzantine empires and was captured by the Crusaders in 1124, before being overrun and destroyed by the Muslims in 1291. Tyre was taken by Israeli forces in 1982 during their invasion of Lebanon.